Flexing the MusclesIf there was an over-riding mood from this week’s ACTU Congress it was one of pent-up energy, as if the time was fast approaching where the sleeping giant that is the Australian workforce must wake from its slumber.

International: The Domino EffectAn internal struggle in the biggest and strongest industrial union in Germany IG Metall has had a devastating wave effect across not just that country, but also the rest of Europe, writes Andrew Casey.

National Focus: Gathering of the TribesAchieving a fairer society and a better working life for employees from across Australia will be key themes at the ACTU's triennial Congress meeting later this month reports Noel Hester.

Bad Boss: Domm, Domm Turn AroundFrank Sartor might have shot through but Robert Domm still calls the IR shots at Sydney City which pretty much explains why the council is this month’s Bad Boss nominee.

Review: Reality BitesThe workers, united, may never be defeated but if recent episodes of Channel 10 drama The Secret Life Of Us are to be believed, this is not necessarily a good thing, writes Tara de Boehmler.

Airline Bombs Staff

Qantas has drawn the cone of silence over a flash new office block as it prepares for a knock-em-down, drag-em-out scrap with thousands of employees.

The company has put a six-month hold on its multi-million dollar development at Coward St, Botany, as it embarks on another round of cuts, marked by job losses, casualisation and the use of US-trained scabs.

Construction industry sources confirm that foundations have been laid at Coward St but that, in a highly unusual move, Quantas has put a halt to building work that might draw attention the development.

The move came just days before the airline backed a $352 million first half profit announcement with plans to slash jobs and employee security.

TWU baggage handlers struck this week when the company brought in labour hire employees from Blue Collar but were forced back to work by an AIRC order.

Qantas has announced that if will hire no further permanent baggage handlers and the ACTU says it has been notified that it wants up to 45 percent of its workforce on casual terms.

Next the airline announced a new, no-frills domestic carrier, opening the way to slash wages and use contract, part-time or casual staff.

Qantas chief executive, Geoff Dixon, has confirmed his intention to increase non-permanent labour to 25 percent of the company's workforce over the next two years.

Dixon would not deny his new IR regime would be underpinned by the use of strike breakers the company had trained in Los Angeles.

There have also been rumours of wage cuts backed by a strategy that would see Qantas play unions off against one another by offering a rails run to the one prepared to settle on lowest pay rates.

Unions see the baggage handlers' issue as the first step in Qantas moves to spread casual, insecure employment across a workforce that currently stands at 34,000 people.

ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, said increase casualisation would inflict lower living standards and deny staff a range of entitlements, including holiday pay and sick leave.